"Afghanistan Rises in Revolt Against US Occupation"

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The Washington Post quoted two Afghan policemen at a Kabul checkpoint. "Afghans and the world’s Muslims should rise against the foreigners. We have no patience left," one said, while his partner added, "We both will attack the foreign military people."

A particularly revealing incident was the killing of a US colonel and major by an Afghan official inside the Afghan Interior Ministry’s Command and Control Center—supposedly one of the most secure facilities in Kabul. The two US officers mocked the Koran and argued with an Afghan official, identified as Abdul Saboor, 25. Saboor then shot eight rounds at them, killing both.

Saboor reportedly walked out of the heavily-guarded ministry without interference, which suggests that his actions evoked widespread sympathy.

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Such a criminal neo-colonial war inevitably leads to acts of barbarism like the recent video of US Marines urinating on the corpses of Afghans they had just killed, or the case of Stryker Brigade soldiers who murdered Afghan civilians and cut off their fingers and other body parts as trophies.

Such events are part of the daily crimes and atrocities involved in maintaining an imperialist occupation of Afghanistan. NATO air strikes routinely incinerate dozens of innocent civilians, US Special Forces break into homes in night raids and terrorize entire families, NATO forces oversee the arrest, detention and torture of thousands.

Major responsibility for these continuing crimes lies with the political forces that disoriented mass anti-war sentiment and channeled it behind the Democratic Party. Barack Obama ran in the 2008 presidential election as a purported opponent of the war in Iraq, while promising to continue the war in Afghanistan. He has since tripled the number of US troops deployed in Afghanistan, and the death toll of Afghan civilians has risen every year since he entered the White House.

The war in Afghanistan demonstrates that the Democratic Party is just as much a party of imperialist war and aggression as the Republican Party. The war is an indictment not only of the Obama administration, but of all those organizations of the liberal and pseudo-socialist "left" that portrayed Obama as an "anti-war" alternative to Bush and the Republicans, and which are rallying behind the Obama reelection campaign in 2012.

The social basis of opposition to war is not to be found in any section of the political establishment, but in the international working class—the force whose struggles last year toppled US-backed dictators in Egypt and Tunisia.

Workers in the United States and throughout the world must demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US and NATO forces, the prosecution on war crimes charges of those responsible for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and massive reparations to the Afghan people.

Judge Tosses Lawsuit to Overturn Olympia Co-op's Boycott of Israeli Goods BY JEREMY PAWLOSKI

Tweet http://www.theolympian.com/2012/02/27/v-print/2007774/judge-tosses-lawsuit-that-sought.html

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to overturn the Olympia Food Co-op's boycott of Israeli goods, ruling that the lawsuit was an illegal "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation," or SLAPP. Bruce Johnson of Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle, an attorney for the defendants in the lawsuit, said following the judge's ruling that SLAPP lawsuits are illegal under an enhanced anti-SLAPP statute he and another staff attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine helped draft.

"SLAPPs are usually designed to throttle free speech and force the speakers to spend unnecessary litigation costs," Johnson said.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Thomas McPhee ruled Monday that the plaintiffs who sought to overturn the co-op's boycott of Israeli goods failed to show that the co-op's board acted outside its authority when it enacted the boycott in July, 2010.
Nine of the co-op's 10 board members voted to remove Israeli products from store shelves.

McPhee also ruled that the issue of whether consensus was necessary among co-op staff in enacting the boycott was not material to the case, as had been argued by the plaintiffs who brought the suit seeking to nullify the boycott. McPhee ruled that the co-op's board never exempted itself as the final authority with respect to the right to enact a boycott.

McPhee also addressed the plaintiffs' contention in its lawsuit that the boycott was not "nationally recognized," as is required under the co-op's boycott policy.

McPhee said the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement or BDS, which supported the boycott, "is a national movement."

Members of Olympia's BDS movement have supported boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel "until it ends occupation of Palestine, respects the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and gives equal rights to Palestinians living inside of Israel," according to its website.

McPhee also ruled that the defendants' speech in enacting the boycott was protected free speech involving an issue of public concern. He also ruled that the SLAPP statute itself is not unconstitutional, as had been argued by the plaintiffs' attorney, Bob Sulkin.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are five co-op members who opposed the boycott. The defendants in the suit are 16 current or former co-op board members.

Sulkin said following McPhee's dismissal of the suit that he will appeal McPhee's opinion to the Washington Court of Appeals.

McPhee said that after he returns from a week's vacation, he will consider a written order awarding damages in the case. Under Washington's SLAPP statute, each defendant in the lawsuit is potentially entitled to an "anti-SLAPP penalty," of $10,000, in addition to attorney's fees.

Israeli products that were removed from the co-op's two stores after the boycott, one in East Olympia and the other on Olympia's West Side, include gluten-free crackers, ice cream cones and a moisturizing cream.

In McPhee's concluding remarks, he recognized that his opinion will most likely be appealed by the plaintiff's' attorney. He suggested that one way to avoid more costly litigation by both sides would be to put the question of the boycott to a vote by its full membership. McPhee added in his remarks, however, that he has no authority to require any of the parties to put a boycott vote to the co-op membership.

Johnson pointed out outside court that last year, the co-op board offered to facilitate a member-initiated ballot that would have put a vote on the boycott to the co-op's full membership. However, Sulkin refused that offer, Johnson said.

Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5445 jpawloski@theolympian.com

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/2012/02/27/v-print/2007774/judge-tosses-lawsuit-that-sought.html#storylink=cpy

South African Activist's Inspiring Talk Supporting BDS of Israel

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Israel Does Not Know How To Deal with Newest Crop of Courageous Non-Violent Palestinians

Tweet http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/02/26/197116.html

Palestinian nonviolent youth activist, Fadi Quran was assaulted and arrested in Palestine on Friday as he demonstrated for the reopening of the Shuhada Street to Palestinians.

Quran’s crime? Israeli officials say Fadi “pushed” a soldier.

Shuhada Street is located in the heart of Hebron and is the central thoroughfare connecting all corners of the city. It has been closed to Palestinians since the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre in 1994.

The Stanford Daily, the online publication of Stanford University in the U.S., from where Quran graduated reported on Friday: “Quran, a Palestinian Stanford graduate from the West Bank and U.S. citizen, was arrested today in Hebron, West Bank, for allegedly pushing an Israeli soldier, according to tweets from journalists and activists in Palestine.”

However, live footage from the demo reveals Quran, visibly upset as he talks to Israeli soldiers, but there is no image of a physical attack on his part. Instead he is seen being gripped by several soldiers and pushed toward a police van. The video also shows an officer using pepper spray on Quran before throwing him on the floor where his head hits the bumper of the van, as soldiers violently try to get him inside the vehicle.

Jake Horowitz, a friend of Quran’s from Stanford who is providing constant updates about his situation, last reported that Quran is currently being held in Ofer military jail. He was supposed to be brought to court on Sunday, charged with battering a soldier but it has been delayed till Monday.

Quran could be held for an unlimited period of time waiting for a court verdict, since Israel’s administrative detention procedure permits it.

Horowitz met Quran on a trip to “Ahmedabad, India, where both studied nonviolence and its advocates, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, with a group of Stanford students at Gandhi’s ashram. Quran participated in a three-week academic seminar in order to learn concrete skills of nonviolent protest.”

Only a few weeks earlier, the world was following up on the story of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan’s hunger strike protesting his administrative detention. Adnan agreed to a deal that would secure his release in April after enduring a 66-day hunger strike that garnered worldwide media attention.  [Plus, Hana’a Shalabi is in her 10th day of a hunger strike in detention:  http://palsolidarity.org/2012/02/palestinian-female-detainee-hanaa-shalabi-on-tenth-day-of-hunger-strike/] 

A Facebook page called “Free Fadi Quran” has been created as well as an online petition to pressure the authorities to set him free. “Fadi should not be detained for an indefinite period of time on false charges. It is imperative that the Israeli government release Fadi so that he may continue to speak for his people and PEACEFULLY push for basic human rights” states the petition.

In a March 2011 issue, Time magazine described Fadi Quran as the Face of the new Middle East: “He is a Palestinian who has returned home to start an alternative-energy company and see what he can do to help create a Palestinian state. He identifies with neither of the two preeminent Palestinian political factions, Hamas and Fatah. His allegiance is to the Facebook multitudes who orchestrated the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and who are organizing nonviolent protests throughout the region. In the Palestinian territories, the social-networking rebels call themselves the March 15 movement.”

In that same article, Quran says: “I think about the dogs unleashed on Martin Luther King in Birmingham. I think about the beatings. That's what it took for Americans to see the justice of his cause. We will be risking our lives, but that is what it takes.”

Fadi Quran was arrested on his 24th birthday.

Thank You, #OccupyKC For MIC Checking War Criminal Donald Rumsfeld!

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Israel Attacks 2nd Annual Open Shuhada Street Non-violent Demo

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Malcolm X: Black Nationalism and Resistance

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Malcolm X is perhaps best known for his categorical opposition to racism in 1960s America. Assassinated while addressing a political rally on the 21st February 1965, Malcolm has continued to inspire new generations of anti-racists, anti-imperialists and anti-capitalists long after his death. His life and legacy – although controversial – continues to be an inspiration and provides many important lessons for the times ahead.

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Nebraska, grew up in a society surrounded by racism and poverty in an economically bleak America. His autobiography gives insight into the brutality and struggle of daily existence; the framing of his father and his eventual murder for his outspoken black nationalism; and the strain of bringing up eight children on his mother who was later admitted into a mental asylum in 1939. Despite this turbulent childhood Malcolm did well as school. But he quickly learned the prejudice and injustice of being Black in a society filled with racist bigotry: on telling his teacher of his dream of becoming a lawyer he was very abruptly informed that being a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a nigger”. After dropping out of school Malcolm soon made his way to Boston, moving from one job to another until he became involved in organized crime, and was eventually arrested for burglary in 1946.

During his incarceration Malcolm came into contact with The Nation of Islam also known as ‘Black Muslims’ – an organisation led by Elijah Muhammad. Members of the Nation would replace their surname with the letter X as a symbol representing the unknown African name taken from their ancestors by slave owners. He joined the Nation and after his release from prison was quickly elevated to become its leading spokesperson. He used this position to articulate a position of militant black nationalism – in stark contrast to the mainstream of the civil rights movement. While their support for black separatism was controversial and their rejection of white anti-racists provocative, the Nation saw its membership increase substantially due to their militant position within the growing civil rights movement and the oratorical genius that Malcolm possessed.

So it was shocking to many when growing disillusionment with Elijah Muhammad forced Malcolm to leave the organization in 1964. Apart from the host of scandals Malcolm uncovered, one of his political points of departure with the Nation was caused by their unwillingness to organize the growing anger towards racism on the streets. Black America needed an expression – and the Nation was simply not fit for purpose.

After his departure from the Nation of Islam Malcolm spent time travelling the Middle East and Africa where his experiences would challenge his long held ideological views and would transform his beliefs and his conceptualization of black nationalism. On his return to the U.S he founded the Muslim Mosque Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. His radical ethos was clear – armed self-defence against aggressors, and the pursuit of freedom, justice and equality “by any means necessary.”

The international travels had taught Malcolm about the need for global resistance, bringing together the domestic struggle of African Americans for equal rights with the liberation struggles of Third World nations. He was eager to meet the leaders of the civil rights movement and to turn the struggle of civil rights into a fight for wider human rights moving it from a primarily domestic issue to an international one. He also recognized the impact of capitalism on the world and while sceptical of the socialism practised by both the USSR and the American left he espoused a strong anti-capitalism, famously stating “show me a capitalist and I’ll show you a bloodsucker”. He understood well the use of racism by the ruling class as a means of divide and rule- “You can’t have capitalism without racism.”

Malcolm began to argue that unity would be central to any fight against oppression and in the struggle for equality: “When the day comes when the whites who are really fed-up — I don’t mean these jive whites who pose as liberals — learn how to establish the proper type of communication with those uptown who are fed-up, and they get some co-ordinated action going, you’ll get some changes… And it will take both.” Over the years we see a shift in Malcolm’s views – moving away from the spiritual philosophy of the Nation of Islam towards a far more political black nationalism with an international perspective.

Although marred in controversy for most of his life because of the radical views he possessed, much can be learned from the legacy of Malcolm X. Central to his ideas was the importance of struggle – to engage in struggle, the need for action and most importantly, unity. Later in life he stressed the importance of resisting globally – of bringing together the domestic struggle with the international struggle against imperialism. He states “It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a radical conflict of black against white or as a purely American problem. Rather, we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.”

Today his ideas resonate more than ever as we face a global economic crisis in which our resistance must also be global. Where racism and war are used to divide us – we must stress the importance of unity in our struggle for greater equality and freedom. Where the struggle can often become domesticated we must raise the call for internationalism. At a time when we are being told to pay for an economic crisis that we did not create we must argue for militant resistance.

UNM Students Being Attacked at an Israel Alliance Event on Campus

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Supporters of Olympia Co-op Boycott of Israeli Goods Rally Outside Court

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Details in OLYMPIAN newspaper story here: 
http://www.theolympian.com/2012/02/23/2002505/judge-to-rule-monday-on-lawsuit.html

Visualizing Palestine: Khader Adnan

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The PA Follows the Yellow Brick Road -- Nabil Hanna

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http://www.kabobfest.com/2012/02/the-pa-follows-the-yellow-brick-road.html

"Stop In the Name of Love" Valentine's Day Action -- Stop Military Aid to Israel!

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Khader Adnan Footage from Inside the Hospital, Democracy Now.

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Khader Adnan, Bobby Sands -- Dave Rovics

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Movement "I DON'T PAY" is spreading across Europe (english subs)

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Anti-Colonial Heroes: Khader Adnan & Mahatma Ghandi -- Carlos Latuff

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http://www.qwmagazine.com/2012/02/19/cartoon-anti-colonial-heroes-khader-adnan-mahatma-ghandi/

Seattle Voices of Palestine Supports Hunger Striker Khader Adnan. Free Khader Adnan!

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 Seattle Voices of Palestine supports hunger striker Khader Adnan held in Israeli administrative detention for over 2 months without charge.  Dying to live!

Stop Administrative Detention, Israel!

Mumia Calls on You to ‘Occupy 4 Prisoners’ Monday, Feb. 20

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This drawing by Rashid Johnson for his comrades in California was immediately adopted as the icon of the hunger strikes that drew over 12,000 participants. Rashid, who excels not only as an artist but as a writer as well, is commonly compared to the legendary George Jackson. – Drawing: Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

[DETAILS OF OCCUPY 4 PRISONERS AT LINK BELOW]

http://sfbayview.com/2012/mumia-calls-on-you-to-occupy-4-prisoners-monday-feb-20/

Heart & Mind-O-Matic -- Mark Fiore

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Solidarity from Students in Glasgow, Scotland -- Khader Adnan

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 http://khaderadnan.posterous.com/solidarity-from-students-in-glasgow-scotland

 

We, students in Glasgow, Scotland from the Palestine Societies at Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Glasgow held a vigil action on Tuesday 14th February joining others around the world in a day of solidarity with you in your brave struggle on behalf of your fellow prisoners against the occupier and it's apartheid system. Your brave fight, although shamefully slowly, has now reached UK media and the the facade of liberal democracy Israel uses to hide it's true and ugly apartheid reality has suffered another crack due to your actions.

 

We salute your sumud and your bravery which personify the heroic resistance of the people of Palestine, and we sincerely hope you and your family know you are not alone, Palestine is not alone and take some small comfort in the knowledge that here in Scotland, in the north of the old evil empire that cursed Palestine with Balfour, support for the Palestinian rights of freedom, equality and return is solid. You and Palestine in general are a source of inspiration to us and people all over the world who at a time of Western capitalism's meltdown are facing injustice like never before.

 

Next week, students in over 20 universities in the UK will be doing in actions and events to mark the 8th international Israeli Apartheid Week and core to that will be the issue of Khader Adnan and Israel's draconian use of 'administrative detention' and the aim of these activities is to challenge Israeli economic and financial interests with the tools given to us by the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the racist, apartheid State of Israel. Again, we hope this offers some small comfort and thank you for being a true inspiration to us and people across the world fighting oppression and injustice in it's many forms, you are a hero, you are a giant, you are Palestine.

 

Glasgow Caledonian University Palestine Society

University of Glasgow Palestine Society

(Both part of the Federation of Student Palestine Societies)